An increased number of people have fled from Sudan's Darfur region into neighbouring Chad in the last few days, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said Monday. "We are currently registering around 500 new refugees who have come across during the last few days. That is a significant rise compared to the last few months", UNHCR spokesman Eduardo Cue told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa on the telephone from Iridimi refugee camp in north-eastern Chad. Some of the refugees were people who had fled to Chad early in the conflict, returned to Darfur when peace talks began, but again crossed over to Chad in recent days. The refugees had told the UNHCR the violence in Darfur has continued, and that their livestock had been looted. "They seem to have lost hope that there will be peace in Darfur. They said they came back to Chad to survive", said Cue. According to U.N. figures, 184,000 people from Darfur have fled to Chad. Most of them are in camps, but some 15,000 have stayed close to the border.
